Team Building

You can throw each other off cliffs; go abseiling; build a raft. That's one way to get a team working together.

You can spend all night working to meet a deadline; have a brainstorming session to come up with new marketing ideas; plan next year's strategy over a weekend teambuilding retreat.

That's another way to get a team working together.

Some people have a departmental lunch once a week a part of their teambuilding effort; some play five-a-side rugby after working hours; others go on a company picnic on a peaceful summer's day.

There are many ways to work as a team.

Whichever route you choose to get your team working well together - to build the kind of team you want - there are a few key elements to consider that are crucial:

Creating trust amongst team members

Allowing differences

Recognising individual strengths, styles and skills

Keeping lines of communication flexible

Ensuring tolerance

Allowing mistakes

Encouraging silly ideas.

There are some very sound reasons to include those elements in any teambuilding you might do.

They strengthen and build the whole team while developing the individual; they steer away from blame and create a climate of loyalty and support.

People will feel able to voice their opinions and ideas without fear of criticism or humiliation.

Put quite simply, you will have a stronger, more versatile and productive team.

It is most important to recognise that a team is a collection of related but disparate individuals.

There may be common goals and purpose, but each team member will see things differently because no two people see the world in exactly the same way.

Team members don't always have to agree; however, they do need to negotiate and accommodate all the different views and ways of working that people have.

Good teambuilding means creating a whole, which is greater than the sum of its various parts, while still maintaining the integrity of each individual.

So go ahead: throw each other off cliffs, plan departmental lunches, go away on weekend teambuilding retreats, but it's how you use these events which is vital to teambuilding and its effectiveness back in the workplace.